Did your ancestor live in the American state of Colorado in the nineteenth century? Find out in the Colorado State Census from 1885. Find out their age and where they lived.

What can these records tell me?

Each record contains a transcript of the original source. The amount of information can vary but you can find out the following about your ancestor:

Name

Age

Birth year

Year of census

Residence at time of census

Discover more about Colorado State Census 1885

The 1885 census was a special population census. As well as population information the census takers also looked at manufacturing and agriculture, as well as taking mortality returns. The records on Findmypast focus on the population information.

Colorado was in the middle of a silver boom in 1885. Silver had been discovered in the state in the 1860s, with early mining in Clear Creek Canyon at Georgetown in 1864, but in the early days silver was overshadowed by gold and prices were consequently low. Colorado had had its own, albeit short-lived, Gold Rush in 1859.

However, in 1878, in response to pressure from western interests, the United States Congress passed the Bland-Allison Act, which allowed the free coinage of silver. Government demand drove the price of the mineral up and more mines opened. The discovery of the Leadville district the following year brought with it a flood of immigrant prospectors to many of the sites that had seen the gold rush years earlier.

The silver boom continued throughout the 1880s and into the 1890s until the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893 brought the price of silver crashing down. Colorado in 1885 was a state on the crest of a prosperous wave.